Swaddling is the practice of wrapping infants snugly in blankets, towels or similar cloth items so that movement of the limbs is tightly restricted. It is believed to improve the baby's comfort by simulating the sensations babies had in their mother's womb or parent's arms.
Conventional rectangular baby blankets can be used to swaddle and infant, but they suffer from a number of limitations in the ease of application and wear. Such blanket's limitations include overheating or discomfort (primarily caused by excess of material, difficulty in folding and attaching the swaddle blanket in order to achieve a good wrap and lack of good fit around the infant's neck and shoulders.
A number of attempts have been conceived in the prior art, including Cassey (WO 2006/125255), Sims (U.S. Pat. No. 6,839,924), Grissom (U.S. Pub. No. 2010/0071709), Trani et al (U.S. Pat. No. 7,076,819), Schmid et al (U.S. Pat. No. 7,264,392) and McDermott (U.S. Pat. No. 7,587,769), the contents of all of them being incorporated by reference in their entirety.
A particular want in the prior art is the ability to both secure the infant's legs while providing the ability to inspect (and possibly change) a diaper without unwrapping the infant's arms. In short, they either ignore the lower torso, or cover it in a way that makes the above difficult. These limitation are born out of the shape as well as the closure methods selected (and their placement), yet are corrected and easily performed in the applicant's submission.